1. Field of Invention
The present invention concerns electronic musical instruments and, more particularly, electronic drums.
2. Description of Prior Art
Electronic drums play an important role in the music of today, allowing the drummer access to sounds not available with acoustic drums.
With electronic drums, the player strikes the playing surface with a drumstick. The vibrations of the playing surface are then converted into electric output signals by means of a detection unit attached to the underside of the playing surface. This signal can then be routed to an electronic voice module, triggering one or more of the sounds therein.
Typically, electronic drums have been used to trigger conventional acoustic drum sounds or synthesized sounds having characteristics thereof. With recent technological advancements, the drummer is now able to trigger a much broader spectrum of sounds such as glass breaking, doors slamming, etc.
A number of electronic drums have been developed, such as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,679,479 and 4,669,349. These patents basically claim to have playing feel and sticking techniques similar to that of an acoustic drum. They also claim to have uniform sensitivity over the entire playing surface with good isolation from support mount or stand vibrations. These patents achieve this through various drum head assemblies and drum body designs.
Patent No. 4,669,349 discloses what appears to be a cylindrical drum using a conventional drum head, with a foam layer under the head providing an acoustic drum stick feel. The detection unit is mounted to a base plate and triggered via a closed air space system described therein.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,679,479 discloses what appears to be a round flat drum pad, with a relatively hard playing surface and base layer. A detection unit is attached to the base layer. The surface and the base layer are spaced with a foam layer in between. The playing surface layer vibrations travel to the base layer via a coupling portion described therein. The overall playing surface of this drum is the size of an average acoustic drum, approximately 12 inches across. Thus, if a player wanted to access a large array of sounds, assigning one sound to each pad, he would have to incorporate a large cumbersome setup.
With the technical advances described earlier, electronic drummers would like to have more sounds available to them at one time without the bulk of a large setup. Several attempts have been made to cure this problem.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,648,302 and 4,700,602 to Bozzio disclose what appear to be multiple-trigger electronic drum pads. The former is basically a slim shock-mounted trigger which can be mounted to the outer rim of an existing electronic or acoustic drum, thus allowing the drummer to access a separate isolated trigger. The latter appears to be a rectangular pad having two separate shock mounted rim triggers mounted on the top side of the two long ends of the pad, thus giving the drummer access to three sounds per pad. Various drum companies appear to have adopted this concept, such as with the Simmons SDS9 snare rim pad and the Roland PD31 snare tom pad. Referring to the Simmons photocopy "Who Says Less Is More," the Simmons design shows a twelve-inch diameter hexagonal pad with two triggers, the first being the entire playing surface of the pad and the second being the entire outer rim portion of the pad, isolated from the first trigger. Referring to the Roland PD31 photocopy, the Roland pad is a hexagonal pad with three independent shock-mounted rim triggers mounted to three of the six sides of the outer rim portion of the pad, thus giving this pad four independent isolated triggers per pad. This pad design requires the drummer to twist his wrist and arm in awkward positions in order to access the outer rim triggers, and the drummer is prohibited from individually adjusting the position of the three outer rim triggers in order to make them less awkward to play.
The trigger pads described above all ue a piezo transducer type detection unit. While piezo transducers have excellent rise times, they are very sensitive to outside vibrations which causes false signaling created by unwanted acoustic and vibrational signals, commonly referred to as crosstalk. This problem is especially troublesome with multiple-trigger pads, such as with U.S. Pat. No. 4,700,602 to Bozzio. The remedy for this problem is the use of different triggering technologies such as Force Sensing Resistors (FSR) as described in the information package entitled "Force Sensing Resistor Technology". When used as a drum trigger, Force Sensing Resistors offer accurate triggering while eliminating crosstalk.
Referring to the photocopy "DUOPAD" there is shown an announcement of a new trigger pad made by Drumworkshop, a dual trigger pad using Force Sensing Resistors. The unit contains both the pad surface and the electronics needed to convert signals generated by the Force Sensing Resistors into voltage spikes in a single housing. This increases the size of the unit and exposes the internal electronics to excessive vibrational shock which may jeopardize the life span of the unit.
Referring to the photocopy "MODUS NOVUS" there is shown a large cylindrical cage configuration which, like the Drumworkshop design, also uses Force Sensing Resistors. This drum trigger set-up can be played either standing up or sitting down. The size of the unit does not lend itself to incorporation in an existing drum kit set-up, and makes handling and transporting the unit difficult and cumbersome.